A critical problem exists within the risk management and mitigation departments of larger organizations. To maximize safety and/or business continuity, managers need to be alerted to hazardous events, such as inclement weather, security breaches, or network outages, as early as possible. In the case of severe weather, minutes could mean the difference between life and death. But early warning comes at a cost; too many false positives eventually lead managers to ignore the warnings, defeating the purpose of an alerting system altogether. This is compounded by the fact that most organizations, in an attempt to maximize awareness of hazardous events (and perhaps limit liability), will send alerts to a larger than needed number of recipients. As a result, no one individual takes responsibility for responding, resulting in communication breakdowns and unnecessary delays. While some of these issues can be addressed through policies and procedures, such rules can be difficult to enforce during an emergency situation. Finally, external circumstances such as power outages or network interruptions may delay or prevent alerts from reaching their intended audience.
An effective early-warning alerting system should thereby: 1) communicate only relevant alerts to the minimum possible number of recipients, 2) guarantee receipt of said alerts, 3) automatically escalate alerts which are not acknowledged in a timely fashion, and 4) provide auditing controls for post-event evaluation. The system described herein would encompass all aspects of an effective early-warning alerting system.